Linus and the Great Pumpkin
by Elcall
Summary: Another year of Halloween has come for the Peanuts gang. And for one family, it means one of those blockheads spending the night in the pumpkin patch waiting for an imaginary figure to appear. But this year could be different... Read for heart-warming-ness! LinusxLucy sibling, not romance. Cover image by me.


Welcome to my Halloween oneshot! It's gonna be sibling-y love, of Linus and Lucy. 'Cause the two are just too cute! Enjoy!

**~0~**

The day was nearing, the day that all little kids looked forwards to. The last day of October, also known as Halloween. But to children, the day you get to dress up and collect candy.

But for one boy, it meant waiting in the pumpkin patch and waiting for a hero.

Linus was sitting at his table, with several sheet of paper and a pencil in his hand, getting ready to write his wish list to the Great Pumpkin.

'_Dear Great Pumpkin,_

_ It has appeared that another year has gone by, and as the date approaches, I know you are getting busier._'

He paused his writing as he noticed his sister, Lucy come by and rest her elbows on the table next to him, to read his writing.

'_So, I'll try to keep this letter short enough for you to quickly read. This year, instead of asking for world peace or no drama at school (because we all know that that's impossible), I'll ask you for more simple things. I'd like that new bike in the front of the bicycle shop, to replace my old one. I'd also like the Monster Truckster 3000, which is a remote control car. I think I'd like a new copy of my bible, as it is getting ripped in the corners, and some pages have fallen out. A few dollars would be nice, so I could buy myself candy or ice cream whenever I feel like it. And lastly, I would appreciate it if I could go a day without having Charlie Brown's little sister, Sally, bug me and call me her 'Sweet Bamboo'. *shudder*_

_ I do hope, that this year you will choose our pumpkin patch, and come see me, as I have been waiting for very long now. _

_Thank you for your time,_

_Sincerely, _

_Linus Van Pelt._'

Linus signed his name at the bottom of his second page, and heard Lucy give a loud groan beside him.

"I can't believe you still try to get that dumb pumpkin to get you gifts. He doesn't exist!" She shouted.

"The Great Pumpkin does exist, he just hasn't chosen our pumpkin patch yet." Linus responded calmly.

"Yea, right. You're like, 12 now! Let it go already! He won't come!" She argued.

"I'm 11, you're 'like 12'. Aren't you getting a bit too old to be going trick-or-treating?" Linus countered

"No, and plus, we're going to going to Violet's party, too. So it technically doesn't count."

"It technically _does_." Linus mumbled under his breath.

"What did you say?" Lucy growled

Linus put on a fake grin, "Nothing, sister dear!"

Linus grabbed his letter and tucked it into his envelope and headed outside to the mailbox. He felt Lucy follow him, but again, ignored her.

Before, he needed his blanket to reach up to the handle, but now, he could reach it without help.

He safely placed the blanched envelope into the metal compartment and flipped the flag upwards. He turned to go outside, but noticed that Lucy had not followed him again, but ignored it. She could do whatever she wanted.

Lucy stood next to the mailbox, and watched as Linus made his back inside. After waiting a minute to make sure that he had gone inside, she quickly opened the metal door and pulled the envelope out. She left the flag up, so Linus's suspicions didn't rise. Had to be careful around him.

Quickly, she rushed inside again, so no one would figure that she took it, and ran to the home phone.

Picking it up, she dialed, and waited as it rang.

"_Hello?_" A voice answered

"Hey, it's me. I got it, get everyone at your place now." She replied hushed.

"_Ok, see you in a few._" It responded, and she placed the phone back in it's place.

She head towards the door again, and grabbed her purple coat and red hat.

"I'm going out!" She shouted down the hall and it echoed into the house.

"_Ok!_" She heard her mom shout back to her.

Taking her clearance, Lucy head out at hurriedly walked to her destination, not too far down the road.

She swiftly knocked on the door, and it promptly opened to show a short blond girl in a bright pink dress.

"Hi Lucy! Everyone's here, so come in." Sally greeted.

"Good, lets start." Lucy said, as she maneuvered inside to hang her coat and hat.

Sally led her to the family room where many of their friends were sitting on the floor and on the couch, waiting for something to happen.

Lucy stepped up to the front, "Hello everyone. First of all, thank you all for joining me here today, and thank you Charlie Brown and Sally for letting us gather at your place." Charlie blushed and Sally grinned.

"So, let's get down to why I asked you all to join me here today. As I am sure that you are all aware that Halloween is coming up in about a week." She paused as many of them nodded or stated their approval, "And there's another thing we all know about Halloween, anyone want to guess?"

Pig-Pen raised his arm, "Trick-or –Treating?"

"Dressing up in costumes?" Frieda asked.

Lucy shook her head at the failed attempts to guess. "No, The Great Pumpkin."

Everyone started groaning as she stated that.

"Don't tell me _you_'ve started to believe in that fraud, too Lucy!" Violet spoke up.

Lucy scoffed, "As if, and stay quiet if you want to know what I'm planning." Everyone hushed to hear. "Alright, so Linus had just written his letter to the Great Pumpkin, so this year, we're going to make him appear." She said, grinning.

"What? How're we going to do that?" Frankin asked.

"Well, with a thought out plan that's Linus proof, we can get to the Pumpkin patch, greet Linus and give him his gifts, and get back to Vi's party before he even suspects it."

They all stayed silent, mulling over her plans.

Patty opened her mouth, "Why should we do anything for Linus, _anyways_? It's not our fault he believes in something fake." She said snootily.

Lucy growled, "If anyone here believes that, you can get out, but not before I pound you!" And rolled up an imaginary sleeve.

Some of them shrunk back, fearing the consequences of leaving.

Lucy grinned, "Alright," She pulled the envelope out of her pocket, "Here's Linus's letter-"

Shermy gasped, "You _stole_ that from him?"

"No you blockhead! I took it when he left. It's not stealing." She stated and continued.

"Anyways, here it is, and I brought it so we could go buy what he wanted for him."

Charlie Brown slowly raised his hand, as if afraid to ask, "Are we going to be paying for them?"

Lucy shook her head, "No, I got my dad to give me money, so don't worry, you can save your money."

Some of them let out a breath of relief.

"Ok, I'll read the letter out to you, and we'll get started planning." Lucy read the letter out loud, and as she finished, developed a plan with the help of her friends to get Operation Linus and the Great Pumpkin done.

**~0~**

**Halloween Night**

Lucy pulled her witch hat on her head and fixed it on her head in the mirror. This year, she was a witch. Linus came into the hall behind her and stood their in his normal attire.

"Are you ready?" He asked her.

She glanced at the mirror once more. "Yep"

Lucy grabbed her bag and followed Linus out the door. They silently made their way to the Pumpkin patch, and Lucy spoke up.

"Well, you have fun, but I bet he's not even going to come this year. I'm going to Violet's now to meet up with everyone, bye" She lifted her arm to show a wave and walked away from the patch.

Linus sighed and plopped down behind a pumpkin to lean on it. He wrapped his blanket around himself, as it was a little cold out. He stayed silent as his night long wait began.

Linus glanced at his watch. It had been exactly 2 hours since he got there. What had he done all that time? Well, he played Tic-Tac-Toe in the dirt by himself and tried to count the stars in the sky, too.

But Linus wondered why nobody had come to visit him this year. Usually Sally or Snoopy would come and see if anything had happened. And annoying as she may be, he was starting to miss the company of someone, or more specifically, Sally.

He sighed and stood up to stretch his legs a bit, they were getting cramped.

Suddenly, he heard a _whoosh_-ing sound. Not a natural wind, but like someone was making that sound on purpose. He looked around but didn't see anything.

He was about to ignore it, when the leaves started crunching. He snapped his head to the direction it was coming from. Slowly, a large circle like shape rose up between Linus and the moon.

"T-t-the G-great Pumpkin!" He stuttered out, as he realized it was not a circle, but a large pumpkin.

"It's you! It's really you! And nobody believed me!" Linus started dancing around.

Linus jumped as he heard a loud booming sound. "Oh, sorry, sir. I brought you some pumpkin shaped cooking and milk." He offered, and slowly advanced to place it in front of the pumpkin.

He went back to his place, and watched as the Great Pumpkin grabbed the brown bag and dumped it inside it mouth, then give a thumb's up with his stick fingers.

Linus grinned, "Thanks!"

The Great Pumpkin reached down and pulled an envelope out and handed it to Linus.

He grabbed it and looked at it. "Oh, can you not talk? Well, that's alright, you wrote it all down? Thanks Great Pumpkin!"

The Great Pumpkin looked as if it nodded and then looked to Linus's left side. Linus too looked in that direction, and almost fainted as he saw the new bike at the store window being wheeled forwards magically.

"No way! You got me the bike I wanted!" Linus yelled happily as he ran towards it.

Linus glanced at the Great Pumpkin and saw that it was now looking to his right side. He too looked in that direction. Now, a large box with orange pumpkin gift wrap was floating towards the patch.

"Woah!" He ran to it and grabbed it, carefully opening the wrap, he wanted to save what The Great Pumpkin gave him.

"The Monster Truckster 3000! You got it for me! Thanks soooo much Great Pumpkin!" Linus yelled, again, happily.

He looked at the Great Pumpkin, and saw it raise his hand, like he was waving.

"Oh, you have to go? Well, ok, bye! And thanks a lot for everything!" Linus grinned and waved as it shrunk back down and disappeared.

Linus stood to himself and looked down at his things in disbelief. He touched the bike again, just to make sure he hadn't just imagined everything. Suddenly, he jumped up and started leaving the patch. He would go show Lucy and everyone that the Great Pumpkin was real, and he had gotten him gifts!

**~0~**

"Come on everyone! Turn on the music, hide the props, make it look like we never left!" Lucy shouted, as they all entered Violet's house scrambling.

Lucy was sure that Linus was going to come and prove to everyone that the Great Pumpkin was real, so they had to hide all evidence.

Lucy looked around the room to make sure everything was hidden.

"Fix your costumes people!" She shouted, and watched as many of them look in the mirror or pull them on.

They settled down into the music, when the bell rang.

"Quick! Relax people!" She whisper shouted.

Violet brushed her fairy dress and opened it, to reveal a panting Linus with the bike next to him and box under his arm.

"Oh! Linus, what are you doing here?" She asked him faking surprise.

He ignored her and wheeled the bike into the house.

"Don't bring that into my house!"

Linus sighed and backed up the bike and leaned it against the wall of the house, but took the package inside. He spotted Lucy at the apple bobbing area, and went to her.

"Lucy! Guess what! The Great Pumpkin came! He gave me what I wanted."

Lucy rolled her eyes as she turned. "As if you blockhead." She widened her eyes as she spotted the box. "What? Are you sure? Do you have any proof?"

Linus held the box to her. "Here's the proof! No way I could've bought this myself!"

Lucy inspected the toy, "Hmph, well I guess you were right this time." Crossed her arms and turned her back to him.

"Yes! Everyone, The Great Pumpkin does exist! You were all wrong!" Linus cheered and started dancing.

Lucy rolled her eyed and secretly grinned, "Yea, yea."

**~0~**

Linus rushed inside and threw off his hat heard Lucy follow at a slower pace.

He rushed to the table and opened the envelope the Great Pumpkin gave him.

It explained that he had chosen his pumpkin patch and gotten his gifts. He also added a $10 bill for his treats.

He happily put it away for the night, as their mom called them all to bed.

The next morning, Linus opened the letter again to re-read it at the table.

He read it and smiled and was about to put it back, when something caught his eye. Something in the way his name was written at the top looked very familiar. He picked it up and took the letter to his room. He took kept looking at the name and sat down on his bed, thinking about it. His backpack, which was on his bed, fell on its side next to him, and he glanced at it before looking at the letter.

He registered what he saw and did a double take. Pulling his backpack closer, he looked at it. Lucy had written his name on the front of the bag for him. Linus placed his letter next to the bag.

A perfect match. Well, not perfect, but close enough to say that the same person wrote it.

Linus frowned. Did Lucy write this as a joke? But wait, The Great Pumpkin handed this to him. So… Lucy was the Great Pumpkin? No, that wouldn't make any sense.

Linus had to figure it out, so he went to the door and pulled his coat on.

"I'll be back soon, mom!" He called out, and left as soon as he got the ok.

He directed himself to where he had camped out last night, the pumpkin patch. He re-traced his memory and stood where he was when he met the Great Pumpkin. He went up forwards where the Great Pumpkin stood, and began looking at the ground around the area.

He spotted it, a palm-sized rugged sphere shaped rock. The only kind Charlie Brown got on Halloween. He saw something else, too. A small Snickers bar, the mini one's for Halloween.

Linus sighed sadly and dropped to the ground.

It him him like a pound of bricks. He was _fake_, the Great Pumpkin was fake. Fake, fake, fake. None of it was real.

He couldn't believe it. Lucy duped him. He bet that she was laughing right now.

But Linus stopped. He remembered how Lucy was acting. It had been strange, but he hadn't noticed because he was so excited.

So Lucy had done that for him? To be… _nice_?

Linus was baffled, but grinned as he thought over it.

Maybe his sister _did_ care for him.


End file.
